Nichtlustig: Superlemming
Nichtlustig: Superlemming Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 60 Lemming cards (12 per player)
- 5 Superlemming cards
- 5 player reference cards
- 4 Cliff cards
- 15 Medal tokens (Orden)
Setup
(see illustration in the rulebook)
- Place the 4 Cliff cards at random in one column, one on top of the other. In the first game, place them so that the side without the duck is visible. (In later games, place them at random or as you prefer.)
- Each player chooses 1 Superlemming card, which they embody, and receives 1 reference card, 3 medals, and the 12 Lemming cards in the colour of their Superlemming.
- Each player places their Superlemming card in front of them, shuffles their 12 Lemming cards, and places them face down in front of them as a draw pile (hereafter just "pile").
- Each player draws 5 Lemming cards from their pile face down into their hand.
- Draw 2 cards from each player's pile and shuffle them together. Starting with the top Cliff card, place these Lemming cards face up, spread evenly, next to the Cliff cards until they are used up. This creates 4 Cliff rows (see illustration).
Example setup for 3 players / Example setup for Green: the caption on the illustration reads "Cliffs in any order", "1 Superlemming card", "1 reference card", "1 draw pile (pile)", "5 hand cards", and "3 medals".
Simple Game
If you are playing SUPERLEMMING for the first time, you should first play the simple game explained below. Afterwards, you should definitely try the normal game (see "Normal Game"). The most heroic player starts. Play then continues clockwise.
Your turn consists of 2 steps:
- Play 1 Lemming card by placing it at the end of the Cliff row with the same symbol (see illustration). Do not carry out the printed effect! (Check whether a lemming jumps over the cliff, see below.)
- For each of your Lemming cards in this row, carry out the effect of the Cliff card of this row 1 time. (Count the card you just played as well. Check each time whether a lemming jumps over the cliff, see below.)
- As soon as the number of cards in a row changes, always check immediately whether a lemming jumps over the cliff (see "Jumping Over the Cliff").
- In the simple game, ignore the effects printed on the Lemming cards.
- It can happen that in step 2 you have to play further Lemming cards. For these new cards, do not carry out the effect of the Cliff card an additional time!
- As soon as you have no cards left in your hand, always immediately draw 5 Lemming cards from your pile (before carrying out any further effects!). If there are not enough cards left in the pile, draw only as many as you can.
- As soon as a player has no cards left in their pile and none in their hand, the game ends immediately (see "End of the Game").
Jumping Over the Cliff
For 2 to 3 players: as soon as 4 lemmings are in a row, the frontmost lemming jumps over the cliff.
For 4 to 5 players: as soon as 5 lemmings are in a row, the frontmost lemming jumps over the cliff.
This Lemming card is removed from the row. The other Lemming cards move up. This happens immediately, before any other effect is carried out.
Determine whether the removed Lemming card was in your colour or in another colour:
- If your lemming jumps, it was successful, and you place the Lemming card under your Superlemming. It is worth 1 victory point at the end of the game.
- If a lemming of another player jumps, you rescue it and earn the thanks of that player. In this case:
- Place the Lemming card face down on top of that player's pile.
- Take medals from that player:
- Take 2 medals if that player has more medals than you, otherwise only 1 medal.
- Also take 1 additional medal if the player does not politely thank you. After all, you have just rescued their lemming. They can at least say "thanks".
- If the player does not have enough medals, take all of their remaining medals instead.
2x (the "2x" marker printed beside the rescue rules in the source; reproduced as printed)
Example turn for 3 players: Green plays the 4th card into this row. The red lemming jumps over the cliff and is rescued by Green (since Green is the active player). The Lemming card is placed on the pile of the red player. Red politely says "thanks" and gives Green 1 medal, because they have the same number of medals as Green. Afterwards Green must still trigger the effect of the cliff. They carry it out 2 times, because they have two green Lemming cards in this row.
Normal Game
In the normal game, the effects printed on the Lemming cards are used. All rules of the simple game also apply to the normal game. Only step 2 of the player's turn works differently:
- Carry out the effects of all your other Lemming cards in this row in any order. You may only use effects of Lemming cards that were already in this row before your turn, not the effect of the Lemming card you just played. (Count the card you just played as well. Check each time whether a lemming jumps over the cliff, see "Jumping Over the Cliff".) Then carry out the effect of the Cliff card exactly 1 time.
Example turn in a three-player game: Green plays the 4th card into this row. The red lemming jumps over the cliff and is placed on the pile of the red player, because Green rescued it. Red politely says "thanks" and gives Green 1 medal, because they have fewer medals than Green. Green then carries out the effect of their Lemming card that has been lying in the row since an earlier round. Last, Green carries out the effect of the Cliff card.
It can happen that you receive cards from other players into your hand. If you play such a card, treat it during this turn as if it had your player colour. In the following turns it belongs to the other player again.
End of the Game
As soon as a player has no cards left in their hand and in their pile, the game ends immediately.
Each player receives 1 victory point for each medal and 1 victory point for each Lemming card under their Superlemming. In the normal game it can happen that there are also cards of other players there. These also count 1 victory point each. The player with the most victory points wins. In case of a tie, the tied player who is furthest from the starting player in player order wins.
Tips
- Be a superhero to win! Rescue as many lemmings as possible and do not focus only on making them jump.
- Use movements to bring your Lemming cards into Cliff rows for which you still have cards in your hand. This way you can trigger more effects.
- Effects that move lemmings or let you play them make it easy to let other lemmings jump, if you aim for full rows.
- Try to discard cards of other players from your hand, so that you get them under your Superlemming as victory points, if you receive any.
- You may enjoy the game even more if you always address each other by the full name of the Superlemming. Especially when saying "thanks", it is a good opportunity to address someone by name so that you do not have to hand over an extra victory point.